Poll Tracker

Zogby also reported:

• More than half of those surveyed gave their personal financial situation a negative rating, up from 44% who said the same last month.
• If fuel prices continue to rise, 37 percent plan to drive less, 24 percent would reduce retail and entertainment spending and 19 percent would try to conserve energy at home.
• Discontent over the nation’s economic policy cut across party lines, but is strongest among independents 91 percent and Democrats 89 percent.
• Nearly three in four were pessimistic about the overall direction the U.S. is headed. Independents expressed that most strongly (85 percent), but most Democrats (77 percent) and Republicans (60 percent) held a similar view.

A separate poll by CNN/Opinion Research, also conducted March 14-16, says 7 of 10 Americans believe the cost of the Iraq war is part of the reason that the U.S. economy is suffering, Sixty-one percent of those polled said the next President should pull U.S. troops out of Iraq upon taking office, a result somewhat different from polls on this issue released last week. Sixty-six percent in the survey oppose the war compared to 32 percent who support it. On the cost of the war, Columbia University economist Joseph Stiglitz, former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Bill Clinton, has caused a stir with a new book saying the price tag for Iraq will cost the U.S. $3 trillion.